Thoughts On That Vegan San Francisco Food Delivery Service: Thistle

Whenever I talk to people about what it would take to lead a truly “healthy eating” lifestyle… I find myself always saying this:

“Ugh it’s so HARD to consistently eat really healthy though.”

And that’s true. Eating SUPER healthy all the time (not half assing it with a salad here and there) is hard AF because of the time and commitment it takes. And money.

I don’t cook much. I’ve tried (<– major keyword) to make a habit of upping my cooking skills and doing more of it… but it’s not enough. Saying “I cook sometimes!” would be a stretch.

Next to having a personal chef in the house (Goals!), to me… food delivery services seem more practical for making *really* healthy eating a part of my lifestyle. I just want EASY and EFFECTIVE.

Now the problems I found with a lot of food delivery services were:

1. Lots of product waste due to companies not being able to anticipate demand.

2. Too expensive.

3. Most of them aren’t actually *that* healthy. Many of them are not healthy at ALL.

4. A lot of them don’t source locally. And just because I don’t shop at Farmer’s Markets often enough doesn’t mean I don’t want to support local businesses! Same goals, different ways of getting there, y’all.

I did my research… and the one I liked best? THISTLE. Literally knocked out all four of my concerns. ALL FOUR.

First, they’re a subscription service – AKA- they can better anticipate demand and thus waste less food. (They also donate their leftovers!) When it comes to cost, this company is able keep it down by buying product in bulk. Even better, their product is made of only organic ingredients AND locally sourced. Sweet! Also cool- no delivery fee. Ever. Something important to note: This service is VEGAN (+ gluten-free and dairy-free!) They do have meat options though.

But don’t judge yet. Thistle is a Vegan service at it’s core, yes… HOWEVER, their meat options are bomb diggity too! Holla!

Let’s further drive this home on why I love THISTLE shall we?! Well… I was first intrigued because I had heard great reviews. People saying that they were astonished at how “good” this insanely healthy food tasted. How they loved their customer service. How they loved the changing menus. How accommodating they were with their allergies. How the mission behind it was one they could get behind. I mean… when SFers talk, I listen! And everything I read about the service? All true.

So I’ve been doing this Thistle thang.

This is how it works: (Taken straight from their website.)

With no delivery fee and it being subscription based– it comes out to about $10 a meal. Pretty damn reasonable for SF. And also much less expensive than most delivery services. And the coolest part? WAY HEALTHY.

The meals are like… those kinds of meals that you eat and sincerely feel good about yourself after. It feels great to ditch the beige diet (pasta, oatmeal, bread, rice, yogurt… you know the deal) and go for the “rainbow” diet all those health nuts always push on us… for good reason.

There’s juices, pastas, noodles, veggies galore!! I have oatmeal or acai bowls for breakfast; sometimes muffins. Creative salads and curry bowls for lunch; hummus and veggies to snack on; soups and quinoa for dinner. Etc etc- there is lots of variety.

Dead serious, I think this is the only practical way I can eat healthy most of the time. I wouldn’t tell you guys about this ish (and spend all this time writing it and photographing it, lol) unless I actually LOVED it. So do I recommend Thistle? HELL YES.

Care to try it out? I make absolutely NO COMMISSION if you do and I went back and forth with them until I could get the ULTIMATE CODE- like better than any one they have out there. Proud lol… it’s VIOLETFOGTHREE for three free meals!!

[…] some time and be better for it? We have apps for laundry services. We have MEAL DELIVERY services (THISTLE is my all time favorite.) Learn specific bus routes that get you somewhere quicker than an Uber […]

Thanks for the incredibly helpful detail. I will probably give them a try. And factoring the value of food acquisition (including transportation) and prep time that can be saved drives the cost per meal down. And then there’s the hard to quantify, but vital(izing) benefits of eating healthier and reducing stress!
That the meals are potentially large enough for more than one meal makes this option almost irresistible.